Voltage drop over my rca's

spkrman · Post by **spkrman** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:28 pm

i dont understand the math either.. to be honest.

I've never noticed more than just interferance difference between RCA's... unless the RCA's were 100% complete arse.

Just saying... I'd expect much more out of RCA's, never really paid attention but wow they really do use puny wire.

Cheap SOB's....

Post by **GlassWolf** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:33 pm

its not so much the gauge of the wire, but the material as well. one reason very high end cables that cost a fortune, use pure silver wire for interconncts due to the wire's electrical properties, and gold for connectors due to the acceptable electrical properties, and it's very soft hardness rating so that it not only conforms well to other connectors, but it's also a noble metal so it doesn't oxidize.
anyway, as long as the input sensitivity of the amp is set properly, any voltage drop across a decent set of RCA lines shouldn't matter in the least, audibly.
remember on paper it may look bad.. to your ears, you'll never notice.

Fishy · Post by **Fishy** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:48 pm

Yeah, even a voltage drop of .1 volts merely means you have a set of 3.9v preouts instead of 4.

I'd imagine you'd have a lot more signal loss at the connections of a cheap set of rca's, but I'm not even sure thats an issue. When gold plated rca's were all the rage Harmon Kardon still produced some excellent sounding equipment that used your basic "steel" inputs and outputs. I guess they figured a dollar saved there would be put to better use somewhere else.

-Fishy

spkrman · Post by **spkrman** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:03 pm

KikiTheCat wrote:its not so much the gauge of the wire, but the material as well. one reason very high end cables that cost a fortune, use pure silver wire for interconncts due to the wire's electrical properties, and gold for connectors due to the acceptable electrical properties, and it's very soft hardness rating so that it not only conforms well to other connectors, but it's also a noble metal so it doesn't oxidize.
anyway, as long as the input sensitivity of the amp is set properly, any voltage drop across a decent set of RCA lines shouldn't matter in the least, audibly.
remember on paper it may look bad.. to your ears, you'll never notice.

So upping the wire to 14ga wouldn't be any more beneficial than using pure silver 27ga?

Sounds odd to me.

Fishy · Post by **Fishy** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:10 pm

I'm not really sure I see the benefits of silver conductors over copper.

Resistivities at room temp:
Element Electrical resistivity (microohm-cm)

Aluminum 2.655
Copper 1.678
Gold 2.24
Silver 1.586
Platinum 10.5

from here:

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/wiri ... tance.html

The resistivity of silver looks to be only slightly better than copper.

-Fishy

spkrman · Post by **spkrman** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:30 pm

Fishy wrote:I'm not really sure I see the benefits of silver conductors over copper.

Resistivities at room temp:
Element Electrical resistivity (microohm-cm)

Aluminum 2.655
Copper 1.678
Gold 2.24
Silver 1.586
Platinum 10.5

from here:

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/wiri ... tance.html

The resistivity of silver looks to be only slightly better than copper.

-Fishy

remind me to buy nothing platinum plated... geesh

Post by **GlassWolf** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 9:01 pm

"So upping the wire to 14ga wouldn't be any more beneficial than using pure silver 27ga?"

this depends entirely on the signal voltage and current being carried. this is low voltage and low current so yeah it won't have much effect aside from making the wire stronger and more resistant to damage from crushing or pinching forces.

as for silver, some argue it's sonically superior to copper.. that's arguable of course, in much the way people argue over bi-wiring speakers. Again in a car it isn't going to matter.

spkrman · Post by **spkrman** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 9:21 pm

KikiTheCat wrote:"So upping the wire to 14ga wouldn't be any more beneficial than using pure silver 27ga?"

this depends entirely on the signal voltage and current being carried. this is low voltage and low current so yeah it won't have much effect aside from making the wire stronger and more resistant to damage from crushing or pinching forces.

as for silver, some argue it's sonically superior to copper.. that's arguable of course, in much the way people argue over bi-wiring speakers. Again in a car it isn't going to matter.

Does that mean to say biwiring and silver wire wont matter in a car, but will in a HT setup?

Fishy · Post by **Fishy** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 9:58 pm

Are HT cables the ones with the "lil black box" on the end(Zoebel network)? I thought these types of cables involved passive filters which simply altered a signal's frequency, thus making things sound "better".

As far as silver being "sonically superior to copper", what the heck does that mean? As far as I know acoustics has absolutey nothing to do with the way current flows in a conductor. If you want to make up for the higher resistivity of copper simply use a larger conductor. It'll be much easier on the pocketbook.

Frankly I believe the claim that silver is superior in any other way is simply a case of "Voodoo" electronics, a myth perpetuated by a high end cable manufacturers in order to sell more product and by certain audiophiles seeking to justify the ridiculous amount of cash they've dropped on such items.

-Fishy

William from NOLA · Post by **William from NOLA** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 10:04 pm

Fishy wrote:Frankly I believe the claim that silver is superior in any other way is simply a case of "Voodoo" electronics, a myth perpetuated by a high end cable manufacturers in order to sell more product and by certain audiophiles seeking to justify the ridiculous amount of cash they've dropped on such items.

-Fishy

I agree totally. One thing that crosses my mind is efficiency though. If you had all silver (be it solid or plated) connections including speaker wire, would you have the most efficiency possible?